Email Sent Multiple Times

Category: Email

Bob, When I send a large attachment, it keeps on resending to the recipients several times. Can you explain to me why this happens? If I notice it is sending more then once sometimes I can delete the email from outbox and trash also and it will stop. I look forward to your newsletters and love them.

This sometimes happens when the "handshake" that's supposed to signal the successful completion of the exchange fails to occur. And the problem is usually on the receiving end.

Sometimes a TOURBUS reader will send me an angry message asking why I sent them several hundred copies of the latest newsletter. In every case I've investigated, the LISTSERV machine only sent (or tried to send) one copy. Even though the message was delivered to the user's inbox, the mail server on the receiving end kept saying "I didn't get it, please resend."

This can happen if there is a bug in the mail delivery software, if there is a "mailbox full" or low disk space condition on the receiving end, or if the moon is full on a dark and stormy night.

There's not much you can do, except to ask the recipient to complain to their sysadmin or help desk, and hope they know how to fix the problem. Sending the file in multiple chunks might work, but that would require you to split up the original file into pieces and send each one separately. If you are concerned about the integrity of the document, this might not be a good idea. And depending on the type of data, compressing it into a ZIP file might make it small enough to send without running into trouble. But then the person on the other end has to know what a ZIP file is, and how to unzip it. (Check out WinZip for a good Windows-based ZIP program.)

A good alternative to sending the file by email would be to upload it to a website, and just send the web address of the file to the recipient.

 
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Most recent comments on "Email Sent Multiple Times"

Posted by:

jeanne
17 May 2007

I have the same problem as described above except that it isn't just one recipient that gets multiple messages...it's all recipients. I tried repairing my Outlook with my original CDs and when that didn't work I uninstalled Outlook and reinstalled it. Still didn't work. Alot of times I can't even delete the message out of my outbox because it says it's transmitting but it never goes to sent mail and continues sending to the recipient. Any ideas?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sounds like it might be a problem with the mail server. I'd ask your ISP to check into this for you.


Posted by:

ed smith
24 May 2007

I am having the EXACT same problem with Outlook 2003. On two separate occasions I have sent a large attachment (5 meg) to multiple recipients. It stayed in my outbox but was sent to the recipients 17 times before I was notified. I then deleted from the outbox and the transmissions terminated. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. BTW, I am not on network server. I am in an office with a T-1 on a peer-peer network.

EDITOR'S NOTE: You'll need your network admin to help diagnose this. It could be on the sending or receiving end.


Posted by:

Ben
29 Nov 2007

We are having the same problem. Need urgent help as clients dont like recieving emails 13 times.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The problem is usually on the receiving end, and will require a sysadmin to check on the mail server. If it's happening with ALL messages you send (to multiple domains) then you should check your mail server, or ask your ISP to do so.


Posted by:

Dave
12 Oct 2008

I just recently signed up for gmail and I like it for the most part, BUT - why can't I access my address book when sending an e-mail to multiple users? Am I missing something, or can you really not do that?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Click on Contacts, select the checkbox next to one or more names, then click the Email link to the right.


Posted by:

Dave
18 Oct 2008

The three posts above that were on topic all had the same problem with all the recipients of the email getting multiple emails. I stumbled on your post while researching the problem for a friend. When she cleans out her Outlook (Express, I think) mailbox, then the mails go out right away, and don't hang out in the outbox.

She has to clean her mailbox out whenever someone reports that have gotten 17-50 some odd emails from her. Again, it is not on the recipient's end. I'm trying to find out why that would happen. Her provider is cox.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I think in this case, it's still the ISP's fault, but it might be the sender's ISP that's saying "Sending Failed" when it fact it did go through. So it stays in the Outbox and Outlook dutifully tries to send it again.


Posted by:

Karen
08 Mar 2009

I think all you can do for this is delete it from your outbox, and apologize for the multiple emails.


Posted by:

Nadia
12 Aug 2009

All my sent emails from my sent items folder got deleted when I checked it this morning, why is this happening? I didn't delete them. I am using outlook express.


Posted by:

Renee
25 Aug 2009

Every email I send receives the following message: "Some errors occured while precessing the requested task. Plese review the list of errors below for more details." There isn't any CODE. It's blank.

Emails sit in the outbox and sends to receipients repeatedly. I have to send them to the delete file or drafts. Nothing registers in the sent folder.

ISP says it's an Outlook Express problem. I can't fix it. All my emails in the sent folder have disappeared. Can you help me? Thank you in advance.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I think the problem may be a "broken" Sent folder. My suggestion is to close Outlook, find and delete the Sent and Outbox folders, then re-open Outlook and try again. See this article for help finding the Outlook email storage folder: http://askbobrankin.com/backup_outlook_express.html


Posted by:

James Henning
31 Aug 2010

After spending hours on the phone with Verizon and Microsoft, I still cannot send e-mail from Outlook 2007. They have tried just about everything, but no solution. Receiving is fine, but not sending. Any suggestions? Am running Windows 7 but the problem began under Vista.


Posted by:

Joel
27 Dec 2014

I got a handshake error that something about the message was rejected or something is it something I should be worried about


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